What strange times we live in. The past three weeks really prove this statement as we have gone from setting our sights on preparing for the 2020 racing season to now where we find ourselves in an epic struggle to get the last piece of toilet paper. Yes, the last three weeks really put into perspective of how small racing can be sometimes. Racing went from our main focus to literally being completely shut down by the government. Never in my life have I experience a situation where there a literally almost no racing events taking place across the entire world. Formula 1 has cancelled events, NASCAR has postponed their events, and the World of Outlaws have halted all of their events. Heck, even Monster Jam has either cancelled or rescheduled shows. While we are in a time where "social distancing" is highly encouraged the world and the way of life that we know has came to an utter stand still. So now what? Do we just put everything on hold? Do we just sit and wait? What can we do?
Well, let's take a look at "social distancing" shall we? For the first time in a long time, a lot of people have the opportunity to have free time in the garage. This is actually an excellent time to finish your car up. Heck, it's an excellent time to pull that old car out of the weeds and get it ready just in case. We also now have time to double or even triple check every nut and bolt on the car. Is your tool box ready to go to the races? Might as well prepare it now when we got the time. Need to get those old tires off? Might as well do it now, since just about nothing along the lines of entertainment are open. Once you're done with that, go through your garage, shed, or yard and take inventory on what all you have and what you need. One other thing that can be down is to give your trailer a once over. Make sure all the lights work, check the brakes, and fix or replace any aspect on your trailer that may be damaged. Simply put, there are a ton of ways that drivers and crews can make it through this challenging time.
What about the fans though? For the fans this is just as tough of as a time for them as it is for the drivers. The winter blues are still in full swing and race schedules that they want to attend are now being adjusted. However, race fans still need to do their part to make sure that the racing community doesn't suffer a blow that it can't come back from. First of all, fans still need to support the businesses that support their drivers or local tracks. These businesses pump the economic blood into racing that it needs and we need to continue to show support for them to make sure that they don't suffer too much. Speaking of support, support your drivers and grab some merchandise. You know that you're going to be buying a new hoody or t-shirt from them during the year. Might as well do it now and show up to the track looking sharp and supporting your driver. Finally, when the day does come that racing does take place, the fans need to come out and support the race track. Yes, I know some people will be financially stricken coming out of the pandemic but you can always offer to volunteer at the track. Mainly, don't give up on the sport. We will be back and we will be waiting for you.
While I'm sure we will be seeing each other in the very near future, I can't help but wonder when that may be. What I do know though is that right now we as a racing community have an opportunity to be more prepared than we may ever be going into a new race season. So let's not let the negative news feeds and press releases hinder us or make us run away from our sport. Rather let's use it as an opportunity to make it better than ever. Let's run our race the right way.
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